A Broken Perspective
“Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” John 17:1-5
This week in the Walk we have been diving into changing how we see Abba. Today we are looking at the words Jesus spoke in John 17. For many, many years we have been taught in American Christianity the purpose of Jesus coming to earth was to fix a mistake Adam and Eve made in the garden. When they ate the apple from the tree, they made God mad because they brought sin into the world. So, the father became angry and wanted to kill everyone on earth. He had to send His son to die on the cross to forgive us of our sins so He could even look at us, then when we die, we can have eternal life in heaven. Jesus had to become our defense attorney. This is what we have been taught, and it is wrong. I’ll tell my age here. Anyone remember the gong show? When people performed badly they would hit the gong to make them stop. I feel like we need to hit the gong to stop the nonsense of this thought about Jesus and the Father.
Let’s look at why Jesus says he actually came. He came to glory the Father, the only true God and Jesus Christ, the Anointed One. Jesus says I have glorified you. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. At this point, obviously Jesus has not been to the Cross. If His purpose was to die on the Cross, why would He spend 33 years on earth? The Father could have sent Him as a grown man like He did Adam. Why is Jesus saying I have finished the work I was sent to do if he has not been to the Cross? His purpose was to reveal the true nature of Abba. He had to fix the broken perspective people had of the Father. His entire walk with the disciples was to fix how they seen the Father. Even walking with Jesus daily Philip missed it. He tells Jesus before you leave just show us the Father. Jesus says to Philip if you’ve seen Me, you have seen the Father. Let me quote John 14:9, Jesus replied, “Philip, I’ve been with you all this time and you still don’t know who I am? How could you ask me to show you the Father, for anyone who has looked at me has seen the Father.”
We must dismantle everything we have thought about Abba we don’t see in Jesus. If Jesus is good, sweet, patient and tender- Abba is too. He is not angry. All the wars in the Old Testament killing babies, owning slaves, laws created by Moses like an eye for eye was not the Father’s heart. We must study the words of Jesus to see the Father. As you study you must invite the Holy Spirit to give you understanding of the words. We must see Abba right.
In this passage Jesus tells us what eternal life is- to know the Father and Jesus Christ. This word know is the same know Mary meant when she said how can it be when I have not known a man. This word know is the Greek word ginosko. The meanings are experiential knowledge knowing something through experience, sensory perception knowing something through senses, relational knowledge knowing someone intimately (very closely). This knowing Abba and Jesus is an intimacy so close it produces life on the inside of you.
Jesus came to reveal the Father. He came to restore the broken perspective people had of Abba. Today, we must see this right so we can recover the real purpose of eternal life. It is to KNOW Abba and Jesus intimately.
Let’s end today with this thought: when you look into the tender eyes of Jesus you are looking into the eyes of Abba. Holy Spirit, reveal this truth to us so we may help fix the broken perspective of you in others.
